Given that Michael Bay auditioned Megan Fox for the Transformers franchise by making her wash his Ferrari, it’s not particularly shocking that Fox got sick of working for the guy. And honestly, it’s not particularly surprising, though it is depressing, to watch Shia LeBeouf, her costar in those movies, simultaneously bash Fox for not liking the treatment, and declare Fox insufficiently rigorous in her feminism.

Let’s examine this line of argument, shall we?

1) LeBeouf says that Fox was overly sensitive about some of the things Bay asked her to do on-set:

Mike films women in a way that appeals to a 16-year-old sexuality. It’s summer. It’s Michael’s style. And I think [Fox] never got comfortable with it. This is a girl who was taken from complete obscurity and placed in a sex-driven role in front of the whole world and told she was the sexiest woman in America. And she had a hard time accepting it. When Mike would ask her to do specific things, there was no time for fluffy talk. We’re on the run. And the one thing Mike lacks is tact. There’s no time for ‘I would like you to just arch your back 70 degrees.

2) He goes on to add how great it is to work with a Victoria’s Secret model who is comfortable being his character’s surrogate mommy/housewifey:

Rosie comes with this Victoria’s Secret background, and she’s comfortable with it, so she can get down with Mike’s way of working and it makes the whole set vibe very different…Sam’s sort of frustrated. He has no purpose in life. When he was with the Autobots, he had purpose. He was needed. But he’s got this very supportive girl who’s having him go to these job interviews and trying to nurture him, get him back on his feet. It’s a different female energy than he experienced with Mikaela, who was a very cold biker chick. This woman’s more of a maternal, loving type. Sam wants a domestic, eggs-in-the-morning kind of a thing.

3) And then declares that Fox’s developing feelings about her sex-symbol status are shallow: “Megan developed this Spice Girl strength, this woman-empowerment [stuff] that made her feel awkward about her involvement with Michael.” One can assume the word subbed out after “this woman-empowerment” is actually “shit,” right?

I just can’t with this nonsense. Shia, a few lessons: Megan Fox has the right to make the difficult decisions that often face actresses trying to get into the industry and get cast by famous directors. She also has the right to decide those decisions were wrong or that she’s retroactively uncomfortable with them and uncomfortable with the work she’s doing now. Directors have a right to fire her or not hire if she doesn’t want to do certain kinds of work, but with that comes the right of everyone else to think they’re gross. You, with all your uber-feminist roles in noted films like Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, have the right to make a damn fool of yourself, as well as to show some actual sympathy towards female coworkers who face choices you don’t.

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